Newsletter

House steps closer to tuition repeal

Rep. Mario Goico, R-Wichita and an immigrant from Cuba, challenges a House bill Monday removing from statute a tuition break allowing about 410 students annually to pay in-state tuition rates while attending a Kansas public university or college.

Rep. Forrest Knox, R-Altoona, carries a bill Monday on the House floor that would repeal a 2004 state law extending in-state tuition rates at public colleges to illegal immigrant students who attended high school in Kansas and are seeking U.S. citizenship.

A majority in the House cast aside colleagues' dissenting arguments Monday to approve a bill repealing a Kansas law allowing qualified illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition at colleges and universities.

Lawmakers drew upon personal immigration stories, intricate interpretations of state and federal law, Biblical scripture woven with messages of compassion and voter disenchantment with the country's fractured border security to sway opinions on the bill.

The legislation — advanced by the House to final action Tuesday on a vote of 69-49 — would erase a tuition benefit created in 2004.

The measure would have to survive a political gauntlet in the Senate before reaching the desk of Republican Gov. Sam Brownback.

In fall 2010, about 415 students at Kansas technical schools, community colleges and universities were enrolled under the special tuition provision. To qualify for the lower tuition rate, undocumented students must have attended Kansas high school at least three years, earned a diploma or equivalent certificate, and started the process of seeking citizenship status in the United States.

These students still would be eligible to attend classes at public colleges and schools if the bill became law but would be forced to pay the higher out-of-state tuition rate.

Rep. Forrest Knox, a Fredonia Republican who rallied support for House Bill 2006, said state officials must stand tall for the rule of law. Good sense dictates reversal of a tuition exemption that disenfranchises U.S. citizens living in other states and attending school in Kansas, he said.

"The United States of America is the greatest nation on earth because the law is king," Knox said.

Rep. Mario Goico, a Wichita Republican who emigrated from Cuba, said the bill would undermine educational dreams of children raised in Kansas.

Elimination of the lower tuition policy will make it extremely difficult for these students to continue in higher education, he said.

Goico can empathize with the struggle. He left Cuba in 1961 and made his way to an orphanage in Wichita. He completed high school and worked a series of terrible jobs for seven years to earn an engineering degree at Wichita State University. That led to a 32-year career as a pilot in the U.S. Air Force.

"I know what a difference education made in my life," Goico said.

Rep. Judy Loganbill, D-Wichita, said the path taken by Goico should stand as evidence the current law benefits Kansas by educating people and setting the stage for an enriching professional life.

"If it doesn't move you," she said, "you must have a heart of stone."

Rep. Charles Roth, R-Salina, expressed opposition to the bill in a slightly different manner.

"The core of this bill is mean-spirited, and it is not the Kansas way," he said. "These children are children of the world, who are in our care."